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Bob Dole 1996 On The Issues

Bob Dole 1996 On the Issues

Where Bob Dole Stands on Small Business

Bill Clinton's War on Small Business
Small businesses are the driving force in our economy. Today they are more important than ever. America's small businesses are the engine of job creation. Small firms employ almost half of America's workers.

The last thing the government should do is hit those small entrepreneurs with more taxes and regulations than they face already. But that's exactly what Bill Clinton is doing. In just four years he has launched a full-scale assault on small business:

  • Signed the Largest Tax Increase in History. Bill Clinton's 1993 tax increase -- the largest in history -- forced millions of small businesses to pay at a new and higher top income tax rate of 39.6 percent. In fact, more than two-thirds of the people who pay President Clinton's new top tax rate are America's small business owners.
  • Opposed Regulatory Reform. President Clinton threatened to veto legislation that brought sensible risk assessment and cost-benefit measures to new regulations.
  • Stifling Regulation. As of April 1996, the volume of regulations published in the Federal Register had grown to 202 volumes and 131,803 pages.
  • Vetoed Product Liability Reform. This vital reform would have directly helped small businesses that suffer disproportionately in frivolous lawsuits. The legislation would have helped lower the cost of liability insurance -- a growing cost for small business.
  • Vetoed Securities Litigation Reform. This reform would have reduced frivolous lawsuits against high-tech companies. But Clinton sided with wealthy trial lawyers -- over the owners of millions of bio-tech companies -- and vetoed the measure.
  • Vetoed Small Business Tax Cut. Clinton vetoed the Balanced Budget Act of 1995 which included estate tax reform, capital gains tax rate reductions, increased deductibility of health insurance, and increased equipment expensing.
  • Ignored Small Business Recommendations. After Clinton convened a White House Conference on Small Business last year, he opposed 22 of their 26 recommendations.

A Dole-Kemp Administration Will Let Small Businesses Flourish
The Dole-Kemp economic growth plan will reduce the tax liabilities of 19.2 million small businesses by 15 percent. In addition, the Dole-Kemp plan will:

  • Increase the estate tax exemption for businesses so that family-owned businesses can stay in the family.
  • Cut the capital gains tax rate by 50 percent, which will help business owners and also unleash capital that will be invested in new and rising small businesses.
  • Restore a meaningful home office tax deduction to provide relief to the growing number of home-based small businesses.
  • Reform the independent contractor and employee classification rule to make the rules clear, simple, and objective -- so that small businesses can easily determine up-front if their new hire is an employee or an independent contractor.
  • Increase the tax deduction for health insurance costs for self-employed small businesses from 80 percent to 100 percent.
  • Allow small businesses access to Medical Savings Accounts and other health options.
  • Allow small businesses to set up SIMPLE pension plans, free of stifling IRS rules.
  • Provide relief from over-burdensome federal regulations by requiring agencies to consider the costs and benefits of regulations before implementation.
  • Establish a regulatory task force to evaluate federal regulations and recommend the elimination of laws that are out-dated, ineffective, or not cost-effective.
  • Enforce the Paperwork Reduction Act to relieve small business of the paperwork burden.

A Better America
The Dole-Kemp economic plan is designed to make the entire economy grow. A Dole-Kemp Administration will do this by strengthening small business -- the backbone of the American economy.

Source: Bob Dole 1996 Official Campaign Web Site

 

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